Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition - Garner NC 2013

Session 1

22nd of Rova (September)

4

JUN/13

The Swallowtail Festival and a goblin attack.

Svante’s Journal – 22nd of Rova

After months of unsuccessful treasure hunting around Sandpoint, here was an opportunity for me to relax and think about something else for a day. The Swallowtail Festival, held the first day of autumn in honor of the goddess Desna, and the dedication of the new cathedral of Sandpoint. I don’t have much use for Desna, or any god for that matter, but hey, a festival is a festival.

There was the usual welcomes and speechifying by the dignitaries of this small town – the mayor, the sheriff, the owner of the local theater (I was surprised to hear they’ll actually have a Magnimaran diva as the star of the next play – the theater here must have some prestige to draw such talent from the great city!), and finally the town priest, who of course took the opportunity to give a sermon about Desna. Enough with the preaching, time for food, drink, and games!

After the butterfly release, one of the swallowtails landed on Serris for a while. That’s supposed to be a good luck omen – perhaps my fortunes are about to change!

They had a decently talented gnome doing an illusion show. I’ve seen better in Magnimar (oh how I miss the College of Magic!) but it wasn’t half bad for a small town. I caught up with Jailith, my wilderness guide, and Daka the barbarian turned priest (who keeps giving me suspicious looks when he thinks I’m not watching, forgetting that Serris is always watching…) just in time to see Daka win a strength contest. Big burly guy, the barbarian – I’m maybe an inch taller than him but I think he could snap me like a twig if Serris let him. Anyways, some kid tried to steal his prize (a ribbon? Really?) but this skinny Varisian girl – Amirra, I later found out her name was – caught the kid in the act and made him return it to Daka.

Jailith and I both tried out the fortune-teller’s tent – probably nonsense, but what can it hurt? I don’t know what he asked, but I asked “How can I find my family’s treasure?”. Interesting answers I got:

A figure standing resolute, without backing down in the face of adversity

Something frozen in time, for all eternity

A man of monstrous size, as big as the cathedral

And a warning to beware those who collect junk

I’m not sure what it all means – for all I know, the fortune-teller was just picking answers randomly off some list – but I can guess about some of them. The third sounds like some sort of giant or titan – perhaps something to do with the gigantic Thassilonian ruins? I need to see about checking out the old lighthouse sometime soon. The fourth could be a dig at my family (we sell second-hand goods, NOT junk) but more likely (especially given later events, but I get ahead of myself) something to do with goblins. Nasty little critters they are.

I entered but lost a pastry-eating contest. Whatever. I still got a full stomach out of it for free.

We gathered back in the main square for the dedication of the cathedral, and that’s where it all started. Father Zantus was right in the middle of his speech when wham, goblins attacking from nowhere. Little jagged rusty swords and torches. Killing dogs, frightening women and children, trying to burn buildings. Daka, Jailith and I, plus Amirra, Serris, and Daka’s and Jailith’s pets decided we wouldn’t let that happen and fought back. Serris gave a good accounting of herself, even catching a thrown torch in mid-air to keep the dais from being set afire. I think Daka doesn’t much like snakes (or half-snake familiars, anyway), but that’s his problem not mine. Still not sure what I think about Amirra – she seems quite paranoid and prone to read the worst into every situation – but at least she and her dog (is that what it is? Or some kind of familiar spirit?) seem to know how to kill goblins.

We barely caught our breath before a second group of goblins attacked, and this group had a spellcaster of some sort with them. I greased the ground out from under his feet which bought Jailith enough time to get in close and ruin his day. We mopped them up quickly and searched the bodies for treasure evidence. I found and kept a potion of healing and we split the small amount of coins and jewelry evenly amongst the four of us.

But it seemed the attack was more widespread than this – sounds of screaming and goblin laughter continued from all around the town. What could we do next to minimize the damage and stop the chaos?

Amirra’s Journal

I meet up with Daka, who has a soft spot for rehabbing animals, and his two friends in town to go to a festival. One friend is Jailith, who has a clumsy wolf named Kartha. The other friend is Svante, who has this awesome 1/2 human 1/2 snake friend named Serris. She does not say much but she has fangs. We all head to this butterfly church opening festival thingy. I believe the name was The Swallowtail Festival. We get there and several big wigs get up and make speeches. I think one was the mayor, one was Cyrdak Drokkus(who still hasn’t reply to my requests to perform in his theater) the sheriff and the priest. Cyrdak announces some actress from the big city to perform in their local play; over all the speeches were pretty boring. Around noon they released a crap load of butterflies. I think like a 1000 of them. One landed on Serris, she didn’t seem to know what to think about that. Food (the whole reason I went) and a carnival activities (which was pretty below average) were provided to everyone free of charge. If you won a carnival activity they took your name and gave you a ribbon. I stopped some little punk thief from making off with Daka’s ribbon. Jailith and Svante visit the fortune teller but I do not know what was told to them. We all entered a pie eating contest, I didn’t win but man was it yummy. Later in the evening the church opening ceremony was getting under way when suddenly goblins came out of nowhere and started attacking. I don’t know much about goblins but they seemed very gleeful, laughing and singing the whole time. Some jumped off buildings to attack people. Some threw lit torches at people and others would attack one person then run by several others before attacking again. Many were looting food and other items. Most seemed to want to set the church afire. The 4 of us long with Lulu and Kartha were able to kill 7 goblins so far. We split up evenly anything valuable we found on the bodies of the goblins. The sound of fighting throughout the town confirms there are more and the fighting is not over yet.